I can't afford to buy the right food...

Blueseraphchaos wrote: »

tigersword wrote: »

hollyrayburn wrote: »

And I do agree with what many have posted. It sounds like OP is choosing convenience over content.

When you travel outside your village, perhaps spend that two dollars (whatever the equivalent is where you are) or whatever on some wholesome foods that will end up leaving your family feeling more filled.

Frozen veggies don't taste as good cause they're watered down? Grab some basic spices. You can make

Let's say you had that pizza 6 days a week. That's $12. For twelve bucks, you can get some meats, grains, and veggies.

Uhhh, what? To feed a family you'll be lucky to get meat for $12, and no way that would last a week. I seriously need to find out where you people shop, because other than scraps, I don't see any good meat in stores for under $5 a pound, and good luck feeding a family of 4 or 5 with only a pound of meat for a week...

I mostly buy meat that i can take a lb of, like ground beef, and use for the whole family (tacos, casserole, etc.). Whole chickens are extremely cheap, i can get a whole chicken for $5 here and feed my family of 4 for 4 days..soups, casseroles, pasta dishes.

Cheaper cuts of meat cook well in slow cookers, too. I do that a lot. I make all my own chicken broth from the carcass of a whole chicken in the slow cooker with some spices, salt, and leftover veggie scraps that I've frozen for that exact purpose (carrot and potato peels, ends of onions, etc.)

I'm typically broke myself, and i still feed 2 pre-teen boys, a husband who eats anything and everything, and myself quite cheaply.

Reallly? A whole chicken at mine is for 2 people over 2 days but thats generally a roast type dinner.

Thats eating half a chicken in two days per person!!! Yeah, a chicken for two (kiddo and me..shes 18) lasts us way longer than that. Like Blue...I will use that one chicken for at least 3 or 4 meals, which ends up being more since we have the leftovers for lunch too.

I think the thing here is portion sizes...

Pasta is super cheap, and the Ronzoni Garden Delight pasta has half a serving of vegetables per serving. I can get it on sale for 88 cents a box in my area. Tomato sauce is also fairly cheap.

Oatmeal is another healthy and cheap item. You can top it with frozen fruit, which is cheaper than fresh fruit. Or bananas. Bananas are really cheap (I can get 7 for a little over a dollar, and I live in an expensive area).

Get frozen vegetables instead of fresh vegetables; they are much cheaper than fresh vegetables due to the smaller percentage of spoilage, and since they are flash-frozen they retain all the nutrients of fresh vegetables. Just get the plain ones, not the ones with sauces and so on. Frozen kale is probably the best because it has the most nutrients. You can also get medleys for stir-frys and so on.

Potatoes are pretty cheap from what I remember (haven't bought potatoes in a long time seeing as I have no stove). Squash is also pretty cheap in fall, about $1 per squash that makes about 4 servings.

As other people have said, lentils, rice, pearl barley, beans, split peas. Spices are your friends here, they are a little pricey at the outset but they last a long time and will make things way more appetizing (also, hot sauce). I would recommend sage and lemon juice for rice. Lentil soup is a great meal...my mom's recipe is made from lentils, onions, frozen spinach, carrots, Parmesan cheese on top.

Apply for SNAP/WIC/EBT.

Get government assistance if you can. Spices are not expensive in the long run. I'm sorry you think unsalted frozen vegetables taste bad. Maybe you're just not thinking hard enough. Reminds me of that large woman with 3 kids in the UK whose house is jam packed full of sweets and pre-packaged food on the UKs dime because she doesn't know how to cook, and says that she wouldn't be fat if the UK had just given her more assistance to buy fresh food and give her a gym membership. Since when does a pack of Twinkies or 2 for $5 pizzas ever cost less than the serving price of noodles, tuna and vegetables?

There's this totally incredible website called Budget Bytes that lists very good and wholesome meals at totally affordable prices. It breaks down the cost for the meal and per portion, some of which are as low as pennies per serving of food.

My go-to healthy foods are the same as those listed here, but I don't cook anything that's not from Budget Bytes these days--and it's saving me a ton of money!

Yep! Our prices are ridiculous compared to other countries

rsb1023 wrote: »

1kg chicken breast== $15
500g frozen veggies== $6
2L carton milk== $4
a whole roast chicken== $13
1kg bananas==$4

wow I pay 1.99 a lb. for boneless chicken breast, a 16 oz bag of frozen veggies is usually .99 a gallon of milk is usually 3.38 but was on sale for 2.50 last week bananas are .52 a lb.

A US dollar is only worth 78 cents to 1 Australian dollar though.

Here's a link to a blog post that talks about (links to) a cheap eats cookbook. A nice variety of recipes, all intended for people on a very low food budget.

It is cheaper to eat healthy food, both up front (purchase price) and down the road (health problems).

Yep! Our prices are ridiculous compared to other countries

obscuremusicreference wrote: »

rsb1023 wrote: »

1kg chicken breast== $15
500g frozen veggies== $6
2L carton milk== $4
a whole roast chicken== $13
1kg bananas==$4

wow I pay 1.99 a lb. for boneless chicken breast, a 16 oz bag of frozen veggies is usually .99 a gallon of milk is usually 3.38 but was on sale for 2.50 last week bananas are .52 a lb.

She's actually paying
$11.68/2.2 pounds chicken breast
$4.68 for a ~1 lb. bag of frozen vegetables
~3.00 for a half gallon of milk
$10.13 for a whole roast chicken
$3.12 for 2.2 pounds of bananas

Crazy that even the stuff that should be domestic is high. I guess the producers have to share the pain too.

Thanks for that. I was in the middle of working out the translations. My brains hurting lol